Question on the February 1897 issue?

[Melvin L. De Vilbiss]

My bound 1964 reprint February 1897 has inserted at the end, after page 64, a separately numbered six page “special synopses” as a supplement to the January 1897 issue (only pages 2 through 5 have page numbers on them).

 

My original loose issue does not have this supplement in the back.

 

Does anyone with an original February 1897 issue have this six page “special synopses” in their magazine or is this yet another anomaly between the originals and the 1964 reprints?

 

Thank you for your interest!

 

Mel

[Melvin L. De Vilbiss]

Thanks to Scott Shier who redirected my request for information to a very knowledgeable individual I have, for all to enjoy, his response:

Hi Mel,

It's great to see you digging into the fine details of the Geos! It really is a fascinating thing to study and learn about all the various and intriguing aspects of the Geographics.

In particular, the February 1897 issue really is unique. To my knowledge it is the only issue that includes a complete Title Page/Contents Listing/Index Listing for the prior year. This is present in my personal copy of the magazine behind the 6-page Lectures insert. Roger Nathan was right with regards to the 4-pages of 1896 INDEX being present at the end of the December 1896 issue, but this was NOT the Contents/Index larger insert that was included in most other years. It was ONLY the 4-paginated pages of Index pages and did not include the Title Page or Contents listings that would have been moved to the front of the 1896 Bound Volume. Because of this error in publishing by the NGS many of the 1896 original bound volume books do not include the title page at front. They would have only been complete with the Title Page and Contents listings for 1896 if someone were bright enough to realize that they needed to wait until February 1897 to receive that part of the book, or if they had not yet bound their 1896 book and later realized that the 1896 Title/Contents/Index were to be found at the back of the Feb 1897 book. I have seen 1897 books with the 1896 index at back, which of course would have the wrong page number sequence.

Also, the 6-page Lectures insert is definitely in the Original magazine, though it is missing from my original bound volume book. The insert appears to have been intended for use by members as a calendar to the lectures, similar to other inserts that are called Ephemera by Buxbaum. But, this unique insert is NOT considered an Ephemera item by Buxbaum, either because he did not realize there was an extra insert at the back of the book (not likely) or because he did not feel that it was importantly unique since it was in all the original magazines, as compared to his ephemera items, which were often missing from the magazines having been removed by members to attend the lectures and other NGS related activities.

I hope this helps and welcome your every question regarding unique aspects of the Geos.

Have a great day, Mel!